A Wonderland of Words: Around the Word in 101 Essays Hardcover – 30 August 2024

'Farrago'. When we read or hear this word who comes to our minds.? Yes. Shashi Tharoor, the handsome and colourful MP from Thiruvananthapuram. He is the author of this enchanting book.The book traces origins and etymology of words commonly or not so commonly used in English language. It is written with lots of humour and provides interesting trivias about people and places without which the book would have made for dry reading.The book is spread across 101 small and crisply written chapters with exotic names. For example there is a chapter titled Pleonasms or Dysphemism which denotes certain way of usage of words. There is a chapter Indianism. Highly interesting.I wished this particular chapter was longer.Most of it we know but what I didn't know was it has a name.English as we know now is about 600 years old and about 2/3 rd of its words have origins in a foreign language mostly French. Many commonly used words which I assumed was English is actually French.Trivia: There is a novel of fifty thousand words without containing the letter 'e'.There is a chapter on banned words in Stanford University. Looks like wokeism played its part here.I was surprised to read Scuba as in scuba diving and Radar are actually acronyms. And there are many such nuggets of interesting informationIn the book.The author being a congress politician has taken digs at BJP and Modi at several places. I thought it had no place in a wonderful book like this.If you love English language, it's nuances and subtleties you will love this book.5/5.

We have been hearing or reading Shashi Tharoor since long. But this book brings all his humour and knowledge in one place and also makes it very up to date. For anyone who wishes to be correctly understood or not to be misunderstood, this book has valuable information.

The title of the book was enticing enough to read it. Written by the maven of English language, Shashi Tharoor covered everything about the language - right from the etymology, history and geography of words. I learned many new words while reading this book, which is something I look forward to in every book that I read. This book made me laugh with every chapter. How English has evolved over generations, is remarkably written in this well-drafted and well-crafted book!

I bet I never have had such an interesting time.Clock is useless when you read.

Did you know that the word “to fathom” (to understand”) was originally used to describe the distance between middle fingers? Or that there was a word to specifically describe readers who like to read while sleeping in bed?Tharoor’s “A Wonderland of Words” is full of exciting trivia like these. A collection of 101 essays, typically 3-5 pages long, this book is a testament to the senior politician embracing his love for languages and words. Quips are everywhere with “Misprints” being the most hilarious chapter. The book faulted a bit at a few places (hence the 4 star rating) with a few chapters being unnecessarily stretched, and even a bit confusing, almost wanting to make you quit!However, Tharoor signature style, his Wodehesian humour wins one over — give it a read if you love the English language!

Interesting books on the word discovery.

A Master's class from the doyen of English in contemporary India. His love and play of words and language is infectious.

Excellent and informative. Beautiful get up. Language lovers will be very happy to have a personal copy.